The Third Hokage's Gaze

"Asana, who is this lord you're talking about?" Uchiha Yuan asked.

After a moment's hesitation, Hyuga Asana answered, "It's Lord Orochimaru, one of the Sannin."

"Orochimaru! How could it be him?"

"Yuan, isn't it a little improper for you to call Lord Orochimaru by his name like that?" Hyuga Asana said with a frown.

Uchiha Yuan froze when he heard that. He had not expected Hyuga Asana to correct him over the way he addressed Orochimaru.

Just from that alone, he could tell that Hyuga Asana respected Orochimaru deeply.

As expected of the brainwashing master from Naruto!

Fortunately, Uchiha Yuan could sense that compared to Orochimaru, his own place in Hyuga Asana's heart was still a little higher.

Because if Hyuga Asana's admiration for Orochimaru had already reached the point of obsession, she definitely would not have told him about her contact with Orochimaru.

And when she corrected him just now, her tone would not have been one of discussion. It would have been a stern interrogation.

Thinking of this, Uchiha Yuan asked as if casually, "Asana, when did you meet Lord Orochimaru?"

"About two years ago! That day happened to be an exam. My results were much better than Hyuga Chiwa's, so she was very dissatisfied with me and kept finding all kinds of reasons to scold me on the road.

"I didn't dare resist her at the time, so I could only keep my head lowered silently and walk toward the Hyūga Clan. Then I accidentally bumped into Lord Orochimaru.

"Lord Orochimaru wasn't angry because of it. Instead, he helped me up from the ground and asked me with a smile whether I was hurt. That was the first time I felt kindness from a stranger."

The corner of Uchiha Yuan's mouth twitched when he heard that. Would one of the mighty Sannin be bumped into by a little girl? That was way too absurd. Orochimaru must have targeted Hyuga Asana for some reason and deliberately created that chance encounter.

"And after that? You must have met Lord Orochimaru again, right?"

Hyuga Asana nodded and continued, "After that, I did indeed meet Orochimaru a few more times. The idea I told you before, about learning Medical Ninjutsu to make sure I survived the war, was something Lord Orochimaru told me.

"My Healing Technique and Body Flicker Technique were both learned from Orochimaru too."

Hearing this, Uchiha Yuan understood. Orochimaru was purely raising Hyuga Asana as a future tool!

This Shinobi World War was most likely Orochimaru's trial for Hyuga Asana. If Hyuga Asana could survive the Shinobi World War, Orochimaru would completely pull Hyuga Asana over to his side.

The Byakugan should be very helpful for some of Orochimaru's research.

With Hyuga Asana's current favorability toward Orochimaru, the success rate of winning her over was close to 100%.

Orochimaru had merely offered a few words of concern and taught Hyuga Asana two basic ninjutsu, yet he had won over a highly talented ninja from the Hyuga Branch Family. This deal was far too profitable.

In the past, Uchiha Yuan had not known about this matter. Now that he did, he definitely would not let Hyuga Asana be brainwashed by Orochimaru.

So Uchiha Yuan pretended to be somewhat envious and said, "Asana, your luck really was good! You actually managed to bump into Lord Orochimaru.

"I guess Lord Orochimaru must have been thinking about something at the time. Otherwise, there's no way you could have bumped into him.

"After all, Lord Orochimaru is one of the legendary Sannin. With his strength, forget a child—even an ordinary Jonin would find it hard to bump into him, right?"

After hearing Uchiha Yuan's words, Hyuga Asana first froze. Then a thought surfaced in her mind. That was right! Why had she been able to bump into Lord Orochimaru back then?

Two years ago, she had only been eight years old, and her strength had been pitifully weak. How could she possibly have bumped into Lord Orochimaru?

Forget Lord Orochimaru—even the current her, walking on the road, could not possibly be bumped into by a small child.

Hyuga Asana was not stupid either. In the past, she simply had not thought in that direction. Now that she had heard Uchiha Yuan say this, some doubts inevitably arose in her heart.

However, she did not show those doubts. Instead, she began focusing on teaching Uchiha Yuan the Body Flicker Technique.

The difficulty of the Body Flicker Technique lay in neural reaction speed and control over chakra.

When Hyuga Asana learned the Body Flicker Technique, she had already mastered the Healing Technique. Medical Ninjutsu itself had very high requirements for chakra control, so she learned it extremely quickly.

But Uchiha Yuan's chakra control was rather poor. If he wanted to learn the Body Flicker Technique, he first had to improve his chakra control.

Hyuga Asana told Uchiha Yuan the methods Orochimaru had taught her to improve chakra control.

These methods were simple to describe. They were mainly the traditional Tree Climbing and Water Walking. Besides those, there was also the control of Chakra Amount when releasing ninjutsu.

Over the next few days, Uchiha Yuan made chakra control a major part of his training.

What Uchiha Yuan did not know was that during these past few days, the Third Hokage had actually secretly come to look at him several times.

The Uchiha Clan itself produced geniuses in every generation. Awakening the Sharingan at the age of ten did indeed mean he had some talent, but not enough to make the Third Hokage pay this much attention.

The fundamental reason the Third Hokage became interested in Uchiha Yuan was the report submitted by the Ninja Academy teacher.

This report recorded some of Uchiha Yuan's usual behavior, and his friendships with Hyuga Asana and Yamanaka Kizuki naturally did not escape the teacher's eyes.

Most members of the Uchiha Clan had an aloof, superior attitude. Very few of them could become friends with children from other clans, let alone clans like the Hyūga and Yamanaka, which belonged to the Hokage's faction.

A somewhat talented member of the Uchiha Clan was not worth too much of the Third Hokage's attention. But this member of the Uchiha Clan had a good relationship with members of clans in the Hokage's faction. That meant there was a chance to pull this genius into his own camp.

That was the real reason the Third Hokage paid attention to Uchiha Yuan.

And through his observations over these few days, the Third Hokage discovered that Uchiha Yuan's talent did not seem as good as he had imagined. At the very least, his talent in chakra control was rather average.

However, a child of this age could still train for two or three hours every day after school without fail. This perseverance was still very worthy of recognition.

"If only Asuma could have this kind of perseverance someday," the Third Hokage sighed.

Back on Uchiha Yuan's side, he finished today's training and gained another chance to spin the wheel.

Over the previous five days, Uchiha Yuan had been too unlucky on two of them and had died as soon as he entered the world of the Text Game. He had only received the guaranteed minimum of 1 Stat Point.

For the remaining three days, he had managed to survive in the world of the Text Game for a while and obtained 2 Stat Points.

Uchiha Yuan discovered that as his Level reached 10, he was no longer a weakling in the world of the Text Game either.

If this were placed in the world of Pirate King, in the past, five marines from a Naval Branch would have been enough to wipe out his "pirate crew." Now, at least a branch officer would have to take action. This was progress.